The list of well known rappers from Rhode Island is short. There must be a few that slip my mind but B. Dolan, Sage Francis, and Theophilus Martins come to mind. But I haven’t heard the kind of wordplay from a rapper, let alone from RI, that Jon Hope exhibits on his newest project, Mondubu. While the larger concepts could be more developed, the line for line bars are refreshing, as in surprisingly consistent. There are a lot of gems in here that make you pause the music and really think about what he just said. And that is a welcomed task. This mixtape has me looking forward to his 2015 project, A Guy Named Harry.

You can stream/download the project below and watch the straightforward video for the acapella track, “Blood Streams,” below that.

 

Bryan Hahn feels like a little bit of him comes back to life when he finds rappers like Jon Hope. He’s on Twitter (@notupstate).